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ViewModel not initializing or problem design with my viewModel

I've been reading some questions, answers and blogs about MVVM pattern in Android, and I've implemented it in my application.
My application consists of a MainActivity with 3 Tabs. Content of each tab is a fragment.
One of these fragments, is a List of Users stored on Room DB, which is where I've implemented the MVVM (implementing User object, ViewModel, Repository and Adapter with RecycleView).
In this same fragment, I have an "add User" button at the end that leads to a new activity where a formulary is presented to add a new user. In this activity I want to be sure that the full name of user not exists in my DB before saving it.
I was trying to use the same ViewModel to get full UserNames full name, but it seems that ViewModel is never initialized and I dont' know why.
I've read some questions about that viewmodel can't be used in different activities (I use it in MainActivity also in AddUser activity
This is my ViewModel:
class UserViewModel : ViewModel() {
val allUsersLiveData: LiveData<List<User>>
private val repository: UserRepository
init {
Timber.i("Initializing UserViewModel")
repository = UserRepository(UserTrackerApplication.database!!.databaseDao())
allUsersLiveData = repository.getAllUsers()
}
fun getAllUsersFullName(): List<String> {
return allUsersLiveData.value!!.map { it.fullname}
}
And my AddUser activity:
class AddUser : AppCompatActivity() {
private lateinit var userList:List<String>
private lateinit var binding: ActivityAddUserBinding
private val userViewModel: UserViewModel by viewModels()
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_add_user)
Timber.i("Add User OnCreate")
binding = ActivityAddUserBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)
setContentView(binding.root)
}
fun addUserClick(v : View){
//someCode
val userName = binding.constraintLayoutAddUser.etUserName!!.text.toString()
if(checkUserExistance(userName)) {
val text: String = String.format(
resources.getString(R.string.repeated_user_name),
userName
Snackbar.make(v, text, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG).show()
{
else
{
lifecycleScope.launch {
UserTrackerApplication.database!!.databaseDao()
.insertUser(user)
Timber.i("User added!")
}
finish()
}
}
Debugging, I see the log "Initializing UserViewModel" when the fragment of MainActivity is started, but I can't see it when AddUser activity is called. So it seems it's not initializing correctly.
So the questions:
Is this a good approach? I'm making some design mistake?
Why the VM isn't initializing?
EDIT
I forgot to add this function. Calling userViewModel here is where I get the error:
private fun checkUserExistance(userName: String): Boolean {
var result = false
userList = userViewModel.getAllUsersNames()
for (usr in userList)
{
if(usr.uppercase() == userName.uppercase())
{
result = true
break
}
}
return result
}
EDIT 2
I added this on my "onCreate" function and started to work:
userViewModel.allUsersLiveData.observe(this, Observer<List<User>>{
it?.let {
// updates the list.
Timber.i("Updating User Names")
userList =userViewModel.getAllUsersNames()
}
})

if you take a look at by viewModels delegate you will see it's lazy it means it will initialize when it is first time accessed
#MainThread
public inline fun <reified VM : ViewModel> ComponentActivity.viewModels(
noinline factoryProducer: (() -> Factory)? = null
): Lazy<VM> {
val factoryPromise = factoryProducer ?: {
defaultViewModelProviderFactory
}
return ViewModelLazy(VM::class, { viewModelStore }, factoryPromise)
}

LiveData does not update

class RequestViewModel(private val repository: RequestRepository) : ViewModel() {
// request currency type
private val currencySearchType = MutableLiveData<String>()
val requests: LiveData<PagedList<Request>> = repository.getRequests(currencySearchType.value!!)
fun updateSearchType(type: String) {
currencySearchType.postValue(type)
}}
above is the code in my viewModel.
private fun initAdapter() {
recyclerView.adapter = adapter
viewModel.requests.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer {
adapter.submitList(it)
})
}
and this is the code in fragment. So basically, what i'm doing is I observe "requests" in viewModel, and in fragment, I will also call updateSearchType to update the currencySearchType. I was hoping that once currencySearchType changed, then the viewmodel.requests will change too. But it turns out the requests never gotta called again. Does anyone know where it went wrong? Appreciate for the help!

Changing the value of currencySearchType does not triggers live data you just using it as function parameter. You have to use Transformation for this.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/arch/lifecycle/Transformations
class RequestViewModel(private val repository: RequestRepository) : ViewModel() {
// request currency type
lateinit var currencySearchType:String
val requests: LiveData<PagedList<Request>> = Transformations.switchMap(currencySearchType) { repository.getRequests(it) }
fun updateSearchType(type: String) {
currencySearchType = type
}}

is observeForever lifecycle aware?

I'm working with MVVM, and I have made different implementations of it, but one thing that is still making me doubt is how do I get data from a Repository (Firebase) from my ViewModel without attaching any lifecycle to the ViewModel.
I have implemented observeForever() from the ViewModel, but I don't think that is a good idea because I think I should communicate from my repository to my ViewModel either with a callback or a Transformation.
I leave here an example where I fetch a device from Firebase and update my UI, if we can see here, I'm observing the data coming from the repo from the UI, but from the ViewModel I'm also observing data from the repo, and here is where I really doubt if I'm using the right approach, since I don't know if observeForever() will be cleared on onCleared() if my view is destroyed, so it won't keep the observer alive if the view dies.
UI
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
button.setOnClickListener {
val deviceId = editText.text.toString().trim()
observeData(deviceId)
}
}
fun observeData(deviceId:String){
viewModel.fetchDeviceData(deviceId).observe(this, Observer {
textView.text = "Tipo: ${it.devType}"
})
ViewModel
class MainViewmodel: ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo()
fun fetchDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
val mutableData = MutableLiveData<Device>()
repo.getDeviceData(deviceId).observeForever {
mutableData.value = it
}
return mutableData
}
}
Repository
class Repo {
private val db = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().reference
fun getDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
val mutableData = MutableLiveData<Device>()
db.child(deviceId).child("config/device").addListenerForSingleValueEvent(object: ValueEventListener{
override fun onDataChange(dataSnapshot: DataSnapshot) {
val device = dataSnapshot.getValue(Device::class.java)
mutableData.value = device
}
override fun onCancelled(dataError: DatabaseError) {
Log.e("Error","handle error callback")
}
})
return mutableData
}
}
This example just shows how to fetch the device from Firebase, it works, but from my ViewModel, it keeps making me think that observeForever() is not what I'm looking for to communicate data between the repository to the ViewModel.
I have seen Transformations, but I, in this case, I just need to deliver the entire Device object to my UI, so I don't need to transform the Object I'm retrieving to another Object
What should be here the right approach to communicate the repository and the ViewModel properly?

is observeForever lifecycle aware?
No, that's why it's called observeForever.
I have implemented observeForever() from the ViewModel, but I don't think that is a good idea
No, it's not, you should be using Transformations.switchMap {.
since I don't know if observeForever() will be cleared on onCleared() if my view is destroyed, so it won't keep the observer alive if the view dies.
Well if you're not clearing it in onCleared() using removeObserver(observer), then it won't clear itself, because it observes forever.
here is where I really doubt if I'm using the right approach,
No, you can do much better than this following a reactive approach.
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
button.setOnClickListener {
val deviceId = editText.text.toString().trim()
viewModel.onSelectedDeviceChanged(deviceId)
}
viewModel.selectedDevice.observe(this, Observer { device ->
textView.text = "Tipo: ${device.devType}"
})
}
And
class MainViewModel(
private val savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle,
): ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo() // TODO: move to Constructor Argument with ViewModelProvider.Factory
private val selectedDeviceId: MutableLiveData<String> = savedStateHandle.getLiveData<String>("selectedDeviceId")
fun onSelectedDeviceChanged(deviceId: String) {
selectedDeviceId.value = deviceId
}
val selectedDevice = Transformations.switchMap(selectedDeviceId) { deviceId ->
repo.getDeviceData(deviceId)
}
}
And
class Repo {
private val db = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().reference // TODO: move to constructor arg? Probably
fun getDeviceData(deviceId:String) : LiveData<Device> {
return object: MutableLiveData<Device>() {
private val mutableLiveData = this
private var query: Query? = null
private val listener: ValueEventListener = object: ValueEventListener {
override fun onDataChange(dataSnapshot: DataSnapshot) {
val device = dataSnapshot.getValue(Device::class.java)
mutableLiveData.value = device
}
override fun onCancelled(dataError: DatabaseError) {
Log.e("Error","handle error callback")
}
}
override fun onActive() {
query?.removeEventListener(listener)
val query = db.child(deviceId).child("config/device")
this.query = query
query.addValueEventListener(listener)
}
override fun onInactive() {
query?.removeEventListener(listener)
query = null
}
}
}
}
This way, you can observe for changes made in Firebase (and therefore be notified of future changes made to your values) using LiveData, rather than only execute a single fetch and then not be aware of changes made elsewhere to the same data.

To use ObserveForever, you need to remove the observer inside onClear in the ViewModel.
In this case, I would suggest to use Transformation even though you just need a direct mapping without any processing of the data, which is actually the same as what you are doing with the observer for observerForever.

observeForever() is not Lifecycle aware and will continue to run until removeObserver() is called.
In your ViewModel do this instead,
class MainViewmodel: ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo()
private var deviceData : LiveData<Device>? = null
fun fetchDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
deviceData = repo.getDeviceData(deviceId)
return deviceData!!
}
}

Is there a way to achieve this rx flow in Kotlin with coroutines/Flow/Channels?

I am trying out Kotlin Coroutines and Flow for the first time and I am trying to reproduce a certain flow I use on Android with RxJava with an MVI-ish approach, but I am having difficulties getting it right and I am essentially stuck at this point.
The RxJava app looks essentially like this:
MainActivityView.kt
object MainActivityView {
sealed class Event {
object OnViewInitialised : Event()
}
data class State(
val renderEvent: RenderEvent = RenderEvent.None
)
sealed class RenderEvent {
object None : RenderEvent()
class DisplayText(val text: String) : RenderEvent()
}
}
MainActivity.kt
MainActivity has an instance of a PublishSubject with a Event type. Ie MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised, MainActivityView.Event.OnError etc. The initial Event is sent in onCreate() via the subjects's .onNext(Event) call.
#MainActivityScope
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity(R.layout.activity_main) {
#Inject
lateinit var subscriptions: CompositeDisposable
#Inject
lateinit var viewModel: MainActivityViewModel
#Inject
lateinit var onViewInitialisedSubject: PublishSubject<MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised>
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setupEvents()
}
override fun onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy()
subscriptions.clear()
}
private fun setupEvents() {
if (subscriptions.size() == 0) {
Observable.mergeArray(
onViewInitialisedSubject
.toFlowable(BackpressureStrategy.BUFFER)
.toObservable()
).observeOn(
Schedulers.io()
).compose(
viewModel()
).observeOn(
AndroidSchedulers.mainThread()
).subscribe(
::render
).addTo(
subscriptions
)
onViewInitialisedSubject
.onNext(
MainActivityView
.Event
.OnViewInitialised
)
}
}
private fun render(state: MainActivityView.State) {
when (state.renderEvent) {
MainActivityView.RenderEvent.None -> Unit
is MainActivityView.RenderEvent.DisplayText -> {
mainActivityTextField.text = state.renderEvent.text
}
}
}
}
MainActivityViewModel.kt
These Event's are then picked up by a MainActivityViewModel class which is invoked by .compose(viewModel()) which then transform the received Event into a sort of a new State via ObservableTransformer<Event, State>. The viewmodel returns a new state with a renderEvent in it, which can then be acted upon in the MainActivity again via render(state: MainActivityView.State)function.
#MainActivityScope
class MainActivityViewModel #Inject constructor(
private var state: MainActivityView.State
) {
operator fun invoke(): ObservableTransformer<MainActivityView.Event, MainActivityView.State> = onEvent
private val onEvent = ObservableTransformer<MainActivityView.Event,
MainActivityView.State> { upstream: Observable<MainActivityView.Event> ->
upstream.publish { shared: Observable<MainActivityView.Event> ->
Observable.mergeArray(
shared.ofType(MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised::class.java)
).compose(
eventToViewState
)
}
}
private val eventToViewState = ObservableTransformer<MainActivityView.Event, MainActivityView.State> { upstream ->
upstream.flatMap { event ->
when (event) {
MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised -> onViewInitialisedEvent()
}
}
}
private fun onViewInitialisedEvent(): Observable<MainActivityView.State> {
val renderEvent = MainActivityView.RenderEvent.DisplayText(text = "hello world")
state = state.copy(renderEvent = renderEvent)
return state.asObservable()
}
}
Could I achieve sort of the same flow with coroutines/Flow/Channels? Possibly a bit simplified even?
EDIT:
I have since found a solution that works for me, I haven't found any issues thus far. However this solution uses ConflatedBroadcastChannel<T> which eventually will be deprecated, it will likely be possible to replace it with (at the time of writing) not yet released SharedFlow api (more on that here.
The way it works is that the Activity and viewmodel shares
a ConflatedBroadcastChannel<MainActivity.Event> which is used to send or offer events from the Activity (or an adapter). The viewmodel reduce the event to a new State which is then emitted. The Activity is collecting on the Flow<State> returned by viewModel.invoke(), and ultimately renders the emitted State.
MainActivityView.kt
object MainActivityView {
sealed class Event {
object OnViewInitialised : Event()
data class OnButtonClicked(val idOfItemClicked: Int) : Event()
}
data class State(
val renderEvent: RenderEvent = RenderEvent.Idle
)
sealed class RenderEvent {
object Idle : RenderEvent()
data class DisplayText(val text: String) : RenderEvent()
}
}
MainActivity.kt
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity(R.layout.activity_main) {
#Inject
lateinit var viewModel: MainActivityViewModel
#Inject
lateinit eventChannel: ConflatedBroadcastChannel<MainActivityView.Event>
private var isInitialised: Boolean = false
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
init()
}
private fun init() {
if (!isInitialised) {
lifecycleScope.launch {
viewModel()
.flowOn(
Dispatchers.IO
).collect(::render)
}
eventChannel
.offer(
MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised
)
isInitialised = true
}
}
private suspend fun render(state: MainActivityView.State): Unit =
when (state.renderEvent) {
MainActivityView.RenderEvent.Idle -> Unit
is MainActivityView.RenderEvent.DisplayText ->
renderDisplayText(text = state.renderEvent.text)
}
private val renderDisplayText(text: String) {
// render text
}
}
MainActivityViewModel.kt
class MainActivityViewModel constructor(
private var state: MainActivityView.State = MainActivityView.State(),
private val eventChannel: ConflatedBroadcastChannel<MainActivityView.Event>,
) {
suspend fun invoke(): Flow<MainActivityView.State> =
eventChannel
.asFlow()
.flatMapLatest { event: MainActivityView.Event ->
reduce(event)
}
private fun reduce(event: MainActivityView.Event): Flow<MainActivityView.State> =
when (event) {
MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised -> onViewInitialisedEvent()
MainActivityView.Event.OnButtonClicked -> onButtonClickedEvent(event.idOfItemClicked)
}
private fun onViewInitialisedEvent(): Flow<MainActivityView.State> = flow
val renderEvent = MainActivityView.RenderEvent.DisplayText(text = "hello world")
state = state.copy(renderEvent = renderEvent)
emit(state)
}
private fun onButtonClickedEvent(idOfItemClicked: Int): Flow<MainActivityView.State> = flow
// do something to handle click
println("item clicked: $idOfItemClicked")
emit(state)
}
}
Similiar questions:
publishsubject-with-kotlin-coroutines-flow

Your MainActivity can look something like this.
#MainActivityScope
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity(R.layout.activity_main) {
#Inject
lateinit var subscriptions: CompositeDisposable
#Inject
lateinit var viewModel: MainActivityViewModel
#Inject
lateinit var onViewInitialisedChannel: BroadcastChannel<MainActivityView.Event.OnViewInitialised>
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setupEvents()
}
override fun onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy()
subscriptions.clear()
}
private fun setupEvents() {
if (subscriptions.size() == 0) {
onViewInitialisedChannel.asFlow()
.buffer()
.flowOn(Dispatchers.IO)
.onEach(::render)
.launchIn(GlobalScope)
onViewInitialisedChannel
.offer(
MainActivityView
.Event
.OnViewInitialised
)
}
}
private fun render(state: MainActivityView.State) {
when (state.renderEvent) {
MainActivityView.RenderEvent.None -> Unit
is MainActivityView.RenderEvent.DisplayText -> {
mainActivityTextField.text = state.renderEvent.text
}
}
}
}

I think what you're looking for is the Flow version of compose and ObservableTransformer and as far as I can tell there isn't one. What you can use instead is the let operator and do something like this:
MainActivity:
yourFlow
.let(viewModel::invoke)
.onEach(::render)
.launchIn(lifecycleScope) // or viewLifecycleOwner.lifecycleScope if you're in a fragment
ViewModel:
operator fun invoke(viewEventFlow: Flow<Event>): Flow<State> = viewEventFlow.flatMapLatest { event ->
when (event) {
Event.OnViewInitialised -> flowOf(onViewInitialisedEvent())
}
}
As far as sharing a flow I would watch these issues:
https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx.coroutines/issues/2034
https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx.coroutines/issues/2047
Dominic's answer might work for replacing the publish subjects but I think the coroutines team is moving away from BroadcastChannel and intends to deprecate it in the near future.

kotlinx-coroutines-core provides a transform function.
https://kotlin.github.io/kotlinx.coroutines/kotlinx-coroutines-core/kotlinx.coroutines.flow/transform.html
it isn't quite the same as what we are used to in RxJava but should be usable for achieving the same result.

How livedata send the data to activity if any changes

Hi I am reading this example of LiveData and Observer https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/introduction-to-android-architecture--cms-28749
MainActivityViewModel.kt
class MainActivityViewModel : ViewModel() {
private var notes: MutableLiveData<List<String>>? = null
fun getNotes(): LiveData<List<String>> {
if (notes == null) {
notes = MutableLiveData<List<String>>()
loadNotes()
}
return notes!!
}
private fun loadNotes() {
// do async operation to fetch notes
}
}
MainActivity.kt
class MainActivity : LifecycleActivity(), AnkoLogger {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
val viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this)
.get(MainActivityViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.getNotes().observe(
this, Observer {
notes -> info("notes: $notes")
}
)
}
}
How LiveData is sending data to MainActivity if there is any changes in notes (new or delete). I see activity is calling viewModel.getNotes() which may not get called once onCreate method finish.

LiveData isn't sending anything to MainActivity, it's "sending" to the Observer passed to the observe method. This Observer has a reference to MainActivity where it was created and can call its methods.